May 10, 2002 - Is sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. A Justice Department spokesman, citing the inspector general's continuing review of the Hanssen case, refused to comment. He betrayed his country. July 6, 2001 - Pleads guilty to 15 counts of espionage and conspiracy in exchange for the government not seeking the death penalty. ONeill would have no problem achieving that but he did have a major concern. Robert Phillip Hanssen was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 18, 1944. One eye twitched.. Source: Netflix Article continues below advertisement But Brookner said Hanssens family was never the beneficiary of any spy money and that Bonnie Hanssen has no idea what happened to the proceeds from his spying, including $800,000 that authorities say the Russians deposited for him in a Moscow bank. His assistant, Eric ONeill, was tasked with keeping investigators apprised of Hanssens movements. Before her May 7 polygraph test began, Justice Department investigators read Mrs. Hanssen her Miranda rights, her Washington lawyer, Janine Brookner, said. Since he held key counterintelligence positions, he had authorized access to classified information. But while agents moved and searched Hanssens car, he unexpectedly cut the meeting short, stalking out and leaving ONeill no time to notify Alleman. A former FBI Supervisory Special Agen. Instead, he ultimately became the most damaging spy in Bureau history. The complaint, however, does not allege any compromises by him at the State Department. As Director of the FBI, I am proud of the courageous men and women of the FBI who each day make enormous sacrifices in serving their country. The priest told Hanssen to stop his illegal activities and donate the money he had gotten from the Russians to charity. As part of that review, the inspector general asked Mrs. Hanssen to take a polygraph test, just days before the sentencing. One reason for her frustration may be that some government officials were apparently not convinced of her story. We particularly appreciate the unhesitating leadership and support of Attorney General Ashcroft from the moment he took office. By the time O'Neill slipped into the car on that fateful Sunday morning in 2001, an FBI operation was already underway to . In his new book, Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose Americas First Cyber Spy (Crown), ONeill tells his story of risking his life in 2001 to bring down the operative. Special Agent Don Sullivan, a squad supervisor at the FBIs Washington Field Office at the time, volunteered to replace Hanssen. Meanwhile, the FBI had discovered medical tape and chalk Hanssens tools for signaling the Russians in the car, along with classified documents that had no business being there. In the early 1980s, Hanssen was transferred to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. To his colleagues in the bureau he seemed to be a model agent. Their goal was to catch Hanssen red handed in espionage. [14] However, even though Hansen would go to church with his wife, nothing really changed. The US government took the death penalty off the table in exchange for Hanssens full cooperation. Full Name: Robert Phillip Hanssen Known For: Worked as a mole for Russian spy agencies while serving as an FBI counterintelligence agent. But she was questioned in the polygraph test on her knowledge of Mr. Hanssen's later spying career. He happens to be Catholic. Once he got caught, the only thing he cared about was trying to provide for his wife and his children, who visit him regularly in prison, Brookner said. The Robert Hanssen Story" was released in 2002. Sun, Feb 12, 2023. . I scooped the devices into my arms and sprinted for the stairway, writes ONeill, who refers to this as his one true James Bond moment. But the government could not prove he had lied, and wishing to avoid a public trial, the government chose not to void his plea agreement. After graduating from a public high school, Hanssen attended Knox College in Illinois, studying chemistry and Russian. Hansen even followed in his fathers footsteps and opened up his own bakery. Each time, her lawyer said Mrs. Hanssen told investigators during the polygraph test, he would deny it and act as if he was hurt that she did not trust him. His tale was also made into the 2007 movie Breach.. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. As O'Neill explained to the audience and often mentions in his book, Hanssen was ahead of his time. Finally, he warned: The US can be errantly likened to a powerfully built but retarded child, potentially dangerous, but young, immature and easily manipulated. He looked the quintessential suburban dad, devoted to his wife and six kids, working a government job to. The investigation of Hanssen was conducted by the FBI in partnership with the CIA, the Department of State, and, of course, the Justice Department. robert hanssen children. Playing to Hanssens ego, the underling, a newlywed, said he needed relationship advice about his wife wanting to wait to have children. Robert Hanssen betrayed the FBI. Hanssen had a reputation for being wildly arrogant and dour. Our joint efforts over the last several years and specifically in this case should give pause to those contemplating betrayal of the Nations trust. His Russian contacts and Hanssen were highly trained in espionage techniques and were able to work together without ever meeting. He pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage in July 2001 and was sentenced to prison without the possibility of parole. On Feb. 18, 2001, Hanssen left a package presumably full of classified documents wrapped in trash bags underneath a bridge in Foxstone Park, then placed a piece of tape at a nearby location, indicating the drop had been made. Heart Of Darkness. had too readily accepted Mrs. Hanssen's version of events. On this day in history (February 18), one of the most famous and damaging insiders within the FBI, Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested. His father, Howard, had reportedly belittled, bullied, and berated the boy from childhood to his college years at Knox College, 200 miles away from his home in Chicago. Fourth, there is the case of Robert Philip Hanssen, a top-level FBI agent responsible for counterintelligence in the US, who spied for the Russians from 1979 until his arrest in February 2001. That effort is complemented by substantial FBI proactive investigation of foreign service intelligence officers here and by the critical work done by the CIA. Classic animal aggression, ONeill writes. Hanssen, a former counterintelligence supervisor for the FBI, pleaded guilty last week to 15 espionage-related charges and admitted that he had sold the Russians thousands of pages of national security secrets in exchange for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds. In her statement, Bonnie Hanssen thanked government officials for allowing her to retain the pension and for recognizing that she and the children clearly are innocent victims.. The Department of Justice described his espionage as one of the worst in United States History. In fact, her husband resumed his espionage career. In his communications with the Russians (some of which were eventually made public after his arrest) he insisted on setting the terms of how he would communicate, pass information, and pick up money. This story has been shared 123,032 times. At their very first meeting, ONeill reached out his hand and began to introduce himself. ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) -- Apologizing before a U.S. federal judge, former FBI agent Robert Hanssen was sentenced Friday to . 1972 - Joins the Chicago Police Department. He often steered conversations to talk of religion and his very conservative values, which were aligned with the very conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. Robert Philip Hanssen had drifted through several false starts in life before he settled in at the FBI. His case is considered one of America's greatest intelligence failures, as Hanssen operated as a mole within the bureau's counterintelligence division, the highly sensitive part of the FBI tasked with tracking foreign spies. In the 1990s, after the arrest of Aldrich Ames, the FBI and CIA realized that a mole within the intelligence community was still sharing classified information with the Russians. Although Robert Hanssen forfeited all the money he received from Moscow, his wife and six children get to keep their Vienna, Va., home and three cars, under the plea agreement. Posted in . The underling had 15 minutes to arrange for a car from the FBI who, this time, didnt blow its shot. You can call me sir, or boss, Hanssen said. Enraged to the point that his fist was clenched in a tight ball, Hanssen ran through his usual list of insults Idiot! May 10, 2002 Posted: 11:59 AM EDT (1559 GMT) Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen. The Soviets, suspicious of being lured into a trap, demanded to meet him. ThoughtCo. A lock () or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Hanssen lived in suburban Virginia, was married, and had six children; he was a devout Catholic who went to Mass every week, sometimes every day. His troubles with the law continued in Anchorage as well. For these reasons, the FBI learned of his true identity before the Russians; they are learning of it only now. Robert Philip Hansen thought he was smarter than the system. Today, Mrs. Hanssen is teaching at a Catholic school in suburban Virginia and is living in the house she shared with her husband and their six children. Moron! Hanssen reportedly lavished cash and gifts on a Washington stripper whom he befriended. Mrs. Hanssen said she demanded that he repay the $30,000. Discovery Company. He wrote to them anonymously. So it appears that the Justice inspector general, an independent office that monitors the department's work, was trying to determine whether the F.B.I. At least two movies have been made about Hanssen. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 Hanssen became much more wary. A self-taught computer expert, Hansen often encrypted his stolen files on wafer-thin disks. To get the ball rolling, Hanssen was promoted from a desk job at the State Department and ONeill was given a role as Hanssens assistant. For years, Hanssen stopped contacting the Russians. Mrs. Hanssen acknowledged in the interview that in about 1980, she discovered that her husband was having unauthorized dealings with the Russians, but said she never knew the extent of his actions. When Eric ONeills supervisor turned up unannounced at his Washington, DC-area home early on a Sunday morning, the still-groggy FBI employee was perplexed. He lobbied his Russian masters to buy him a newer PalmPilot, with wireless Internet capabilities, which would allow the rapid transmission of encrypted messages. 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